Spanish-Style Vegan Lentil Stew

This Spanish-style vegan lentil stew is easy to make with very simple ingredients and perfect for vegans on a serious budget. Hearty and comforting, this oil-free recipe is great as a plant-based main dish for chilly evenings or as a side for a summer barbeque or picnic. It’s a freezer-friendly meal that comes in at only $0.50 a serving.

In various social media vegan and plant-based groups I see a lot of questions from newbies about how to replace the meat in their diets. Lentils should absolutely become a staple in any plant-based kitchen; not only are they so versatile, they’re cheap, cheap, cheap!

I live in Spain, and the Spanish are definitely masters at taking cheap, simple ingredients and turning them into something delicious (gazpacho, anyone?). I was inspired to make this Spanish-style vegan lentil stew after having a similar dish at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. While it normally has various forms of meat and sausage in it, the version I had was totally vegetarian.

I ask my husband all the time to give me ideas for Spanish recipes to veganize but for some reason I don’t think he’s ever mentioned lentils. Turns out that he’s been eating lentil stew all his life and has several versions from the different members of his family. Since the dominant flavour is smoked paprika, it’s really easy to veganize and have a flavourful, filling stew. I simply took out the meat and added a bit of soy sauce for some umami.

I also simplified the procedure down to a one-pot recipe and converted it to oil-free. Normally Spanish cooking is laden with olive oil, which is fine if you’re not a fat-free vegan, but I tend to try to avoid using it in recipes where it’s totally unnecessary, like for softening onions and garlic.

This Spanish-style vegan lentil stew turned out to be wildly addictive as I couldn’t stop sneaking spoonfuls of it out of the bowl as I was taking pictures! It’s really great with some crusty bread to mop up all the goodness and a fresh green salad on the side. You could also use it to stuff a baked potato or serve it as a side to some grilled veggies at your next barbeque!

Instructions

1

Heat a medium-sized pot over medium heat and add a splash of water, the onion, garlic, green pepper and tomato. Allow to cook until everything is very soft, adding more water if necessary. You want these ingredients to meld into the stew and not be detectable so let them get really, really soft.

2

Allow any excess water to simmer off and add the paprika and bay leaf. Allow to cook for about 2 minutes to bring out the flavour while stirring so it doesn’t burn. Add the water, carrots, potato and lentils. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are soft and creamy.

3

When the lentils are ready, add the soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

4

This stew can be served thick or thin. Add more water if you want it soupier. I thickened mine ever so slightly with a couple blitzes of an immersion blender, but it’s totally optional. It will also thicken as it cools. I garnished mine to make it photographic; garnishes are optional and of your choice.

Kelly

Monica

November 17, 2017 at 2:28 am

Third time making this, I’m so happy with it! I’m not from a pepper-producing region 🙂 so I added a zucchini instead, plus a sweet potato. I didn’t have a tomato kicking around either so I used about a cup of canned diced tomatoes. Still absolutely amazing. Thank you for posting this!

Melissa

Kelly

January 24, 2018 at 2:36 am

Made this tonight. It was so so good! Used diced tomatoes instead of a fresh tomato and it was still great. I had some extra veggie broth that needed to be used so I added a tiny bit in at a time to thin it as the soup was cooking and thickening. Also did a few pulses of the immersion blender like Melissa and it gave it the perfect texture! Even my kids loved it and they’re not fans of lentils!

Melissa

Natalia

May 17, 2018 at 6:18 pm

Found this recipe via vegan page on FB.
I’m scared of lentils because of IBS so went for the pre-soaked canned version. ITS DELICIOUS! My 8yo also really liked it. Now just hope I won’t suffer much because I definitely want to cook that again 😁

ILovePurple

September 29, 2018 at 11:51 pm

I made this recipe as my first official vegan meal and my family and I absolutely LOVED it!!!! We doubled the recipe and made a few tweaks such as adding celery, jalapeno and cilantro. Also added vegetable broth. This came out perfect so thank you so much for posting this!! Would def. like to try to more of your recipes